Acacia Media Research won another round in federal court this week. A federal judge agreed the Newport Beach firm, which claims a group of streaming media patents being challenged by several adult Internet companies, can amend its original litigation to include what all but adds up to conspiracy against ten challengers.
U.S. District Court Judge Alicemarie Stotler granted Acacia's bid September 9, adding that the additional complaints would be recognized as being filed formally a day earlier. The company wanted to add charges of unfair business practices, intentional interference with prospective business advantage, trade libel, and patent infringement.
Acacia filed the amendment motion in mid-July. Senior vice president for business development Robert Berman said the company was "surprised" that Fish and Richardson, the patent law firm representing several of the challengers, led by New Destiny Media/Homegrown Video and VideoSecrets, was instructed by their clients to oppose the amendment motion.
"Motions of this type are almost always granted when filed this early in the case," Berman said. "I guess they know what they are doing and money is not an issue for them."
New Destiny/Homegrown chairman Spike Goldberg likened Berman's position on the amendment motion ruling to "telling us morning will come," saying he and others opposed the amendment motion hoping not to "have to go down another road" and spend even more in legal costs.
"This is a matter of course to allow (more) complaints," Goldberg said. "It's rather unusual that they wouldn't allow an amendment of complaint. But for Berman to run around extolling the virtues of getting this amendment is really telling us all the sky's blue. We all know it's going to happen...At the end of the day, it's old news. They're just trying to scare everybody again with a different method to old news."
After Acacia filed the amendment motion in July, Goldberg charged Acacia with trying, essentially, to stop anyone from helping each other challenge the streaming media patent claims, which Acacia calls Digital Media Technology.
"They're trying to say we stopped (companies) from licensing with them," Goldberg said at the time. "Come on, I mean, we're small companies compared to others, how can we affect their decision not to do business? They decided we got together in Vegas. They're trying to shut down our free speech. They don't want anyone to oppose them, and anyone who's together on that, they're going to make you pay."
Berman, after filing the amendment motion, had said that the ten companies were going against California trade and anti-trust law. "You can't go to potential licensees and say ‘Don't talk to them.’ There is case law that says (those) kind of activities are prohibited. And now it's going to end up costing them a lot more money."
Goldberg and VideoSecrets chief Greg Clayman formed the Internet Media Protective Association earlier this year, both to fight back the Acacia patent claims and act as a new interest group for other adult Internet issues and concerns. Their Website became operational in full last week
